László Palkovics, the minister of technology and industry, said Hungary’s gas storage facilities are 75 percent full, and given their outsized combined capacity, the country’s gas reserves relative to its annual consumption are well above the European Union average.
Speaking at the Portfolio Energy Investment Forum 2022, Minister Palkovics said the government’s strategic objectives concerning energy supplies included reducing the proportion of natural gas in the country’s energy mix, which required measures to reduce demand, increase efficiency and promote electrification. The utilisation of alternative energies should be promoted, capacities for electricity production increased and networks further developed, he added. Concerning gas consumption, Palkovics said the government had prepared a comprehensive programme aimed at significant reductions by 2030, requiring investments of a combined HUF 16 billion (EUR 38.3m) during the period. In an optimum case, a quarter of Hungary’s gas demand could be covered from domestic sources, therefore the government is planning to increase the country’s gas extraction from the current 1.5 billion cubic metres a year to 2 billion by 2030, he said. At the same time, the proportion of electricity in the total energy consumption could increase from 20 to 26 percent by the end of the decade, he said and noted the increasing role of solar plants.